How to check Linux version?

When we log in to the Linux system for the first time, before doing any work, it is best to check the version of Linux running on the computer. For example, identifying your Linux distribution will help you determine which package manager you should use to install new packages. The following article will introduce how to use the command line to check the Linux distribution and kernel version installed on the system. I hope it will be helpful to everyone.

#When people mention Linux, they are usually referring to Linux distributions. Strictly speaking, Linux is a kernel, the core component of the operating system that simply places behavior on the bridge between software applications and hardware. A Linux distribution is an operating system consisting of the Linux kernel, GNU tools and libraries, and a collection of software. Typically, a Linux distribution includes a desktop environment, a package management system, and a set of pre-installed applications.

Some of the most popular Linux distributions are Debian, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Fedora, CentOS, Kali Linux, OpenSUSE, Linux Mint, and many more.

How to check the Linux version?

#There are several different commands that can help us determine the Linux distribution and kernel version running on our system.

lsb_release command

The lsb_release application can display LSB (Linux Standard Library) information about a Linux distribution; this lsb_release command is applicable when the lsb-release package is installed All Linux distributions:

lsb_release -a

Output:

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:Debian
Description:Debian GNU/Linux 9.5 (stretch)
Release:9.5
Codename:stretch

The Linux distribution and version are shown in the "Description" line. As you can see from the output above, what is installed on my system is: Debian GNU/Linux 9.5 (stretch).

We can also use the -d option to display only the "Description" line instead of outputting all the above information.

lsb_release -d

will output something similar to the following:

Description:Debian GNU/Linux 9.5 (stretch)

If you get "command not found: lsb_release", you can try some of the other methods below to identify Linux Version.

/etc/os-release file

/etc/os-release file contains operating system identification data, including information about distribution . This file is part of systemd, and the Linux system running systemd should have this file.

To view the contents of the os-release file, you need to run the following cat command:

cat /etc/os-release

The output results are as follows:

PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="9"
VERSION="9 (stretch)"
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

/etc/issue file The

/etc/issue file contains the system identification text that is displayed before the login prompt. Typically, this file contains information about the Linux version:

cat /etc/issue

The output will look like this:

Debian GNU/Linux 9 \n \l

hostnamectl command

hostnamectl is part of systemd , can be used to query and change the system hostname. This command also displays the Linux distribution and kernel version.

hostnamectl

Output:

  Static hostname: debian9.localdomain
         Icon name: computer-vm
           Chassis: vm
        Machine ID: a92099e30f704d559adb18ebc12ddac4
           Boot ID: 7607cbe605d44f638d6542d4c7b3878e
    Virtualization: qemu
  Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)
            Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-8-amd64
      Architecture: x86-64

uname command

uname command displays multiple system information including Linux kernel architecture, name version and release.

To find out what version of Linux kernel is running on your system, you need to type the following command:

uname -srm

Output

Linux 4.9.0-8-amd64 x86_64

The above output tells us that the Linux kernel is 64-bit, and its The version is "4.9.0-8-amd64".

Recommended video tutorials: "Linux Tutorial"

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